The taxpayer rip-off called foreign aid

Over $50 billion for foreign aid! That’s unconscionable—or so some people say. But what kind of a dent does it actually put in the federal budget? About 1%. I was reminded of the biblical expression about straining at a gnat but swallowing a camel (see Matthew 23:24).

Here are two “camels” from the Trump administration that we are supposed to swallow:

1) A $1.5 trillion tax cut for the already wealthy. Now that’s a dent. Either you and I pay for it, or our children will have to. 2) A $648.8 billion defense spending tab for 2018 and $716 billion for 2019. This is for an agency that has never produced a set of books that can be properly audited.

Regarding the war in Afghanistan: it started during Republican George W. Bush’s term of office, as did the Iraq War. Those two efforts broke the balance of power leading to chaos in the Middle East. Yes, the U.S. has spent large sums of money to fix a problem we should never have created in the first place.

Trump did indeed attach a string to funding for Ukraine. Making a provisional offer is common in politics: but not for obtaining personal gain. Trump’s string had only one objective: to sully the character of his expected opponent – Joe Biden.

It is categorically false to claim that Trump asked Ukraine to fight corruption. What he demanded of Zelensky was for him to publicly announce that he was embarking on an investigation into Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine: there was no obligation for him to actually follow through.

John H. Terrell